[MW Forums]

Epson unveiled three new "ultra high-definition" inkjet printers -- the R280, RX595 and RX680. more

[bbarrie]

Anyone know if these things are networkable, or does the low price point indicate their desire that you should just buy one for everyone in the office. I looked on the Epson sight and most of their networking appliances seem to support ancient tech like coaxial ethernet and local talk, and while the nostalgia is nice, I'm pretty sure they're useless now.

[Schneb]

Oh boy, even more jets to clog and more ink cartridges to waste getting them going.

[pdbreske]

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All three models feature six-color inks, borderless printing, print speeds of up to 40 pages per minute, and the ability to print on CDs and DVDs. They support print resolutions up to 5,760-by-1,440 optimized dots per inch.

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So I checked the web site. The print speeds mentioned are in Draft mode, which is, of course, the lowest quality print setting. Nowhere could I find the print speed at a useable resolution, much less the "high definition" setting that they are advertising. And what exactly is "optimized" dots per inch?

[icerabbit]

'ultra high definition' and the price tags don't go together.
Unless the bottom has fallen out of quality photo printers?

[moose_n_squirrel]

I'm holding out for "ultra high definition extreme pro PLUS"

[Bob_Hancock]

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'ultra high definition' and the price tags don't go together.
Unless the bottom has fallen out of quality photo printers?

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It's quite simple, my friend. They are selling these printers at a loss. They make their money when you buy their replacement ink cartridges every 20 pages or so. You will probably only have to buy 2 complete sets of inks to equal the original purchase price of the printer. /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

[charlieartist]

From the prices listed, these are no doubt consumer-oriented.
As for the number of inks, my Stylus Photo 2200 is a 7-color machine, and was introduced some time ago. Their current pro lineup has even more inks (eight). Depends what you want to do--for good photo work, it's great. For office printing? Well, that's what my monochrome laser printer is for. The price cannot be beat for general printing...

[JScott]

I'm done with inkjets. It turns out I don't actually use them to print photos... ever. If I do want prints I find it cheaper to use an online service other than pay for the expensive inks. Although it is nice to be able to print other stuff in color so I've decided my next printer will be a color laser.

[foxo]

I have what I think is one of their best letter-sized ink-jet Printers. Not only does it print directly to printable CD & DVD, but it uses Firewire for a speedy connection and Pigment-based ink instead of the standard Dye-based ink that most ink-jet printers use. Dye-based ink fades sometimes just months after printing. Pigment-based ink lasts years. I don't know why Epson or any other ink-jet manufacturers aren't selling pigment-based ink jets. Epson seems to have abandoned their efforts sometime ago.

[gugy]

I Agree, It is much cheaper just to print it at Costco or any other online service.
I have a R1800 printer from Epson, great product but to get a full color set of cartridges is almost $100. So I only use it when I need to print collateral for my business. Photos, no way.

[stephenrea]

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Anyone know if these things are networkable, or does the low price point indicate their desire that you should just buy one for everyone in the office.

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Depends on how you define "networkable".
Like most inexpensive printers, they cannot be connected directly to a network.
However, you can connect it to one computer, or an Airport base station with a USB port, and share them to other computers on a network.
There are companies that make USB print servers, which let you connect USB printers to a network, but I've always found them unreliable unless made specifically for the specific model printer.